Manga
The manga that were hits in Japan in the 2010s.
2010S HITS
About
Yato is a homeless god. He doesn’t even have a shrine, not to mention worshippers! So to achieve his ambitious goals, he’s set up a service to help those in need (for a small fee), hoping he’ll eventually raise enough money to build himself the lavish temple of his dreams. Of course, he can’t afford to be picky, so Yato accepts all kinds of jobs, from finding lost kittens to helping a student overcome bullies at school.
Character analysis
Yato wants to be taken seriously as a god, but he runs his business out of a phone number scrawled on flyers and takes any job for a tiny fee. That gap between what he wants to be and how he actually survives is the engine of most of his jokes and most of his pain. He acts carefree around Hiyori and Yukine, but his backstory as a god of calamity keeps surfacing to complicate how harmless he's allowed to seem.
Hiyori nearly dies protecting Yato from a bus, and the accident leaves her able to drift out of her body whenever she's startled. She's one of the only characters who treats both the human world and Yato's world of gods and spirits as equally real, which lets her push back on Yato in a way his other followers can't.
Yukine is a Regalia, a human soul Yato can turn into a blade, and his own buried resentment from his short life keeps leaking out as corruption that makes him dangerous to wield. His arc is less about becoming stronger and more about Yato and Hiyori patiently working out what's actually bothering him.
Bishamon commands a disciplined household of Regalia and has a long, complicated history with Yato that the story reveals gradually rather than all at once. She's sharper and more established than Yato in almost every way, which makes her both a rival and, eventually, someone whose approval starts to matter to him.
Kazuma manages Bishamon's household and her reputation, which puts him in the position of quietly handling the fallout whenever her grudges get the better of her. He's one of the few characters on good terms with both Bishamon's camp and Yato, which makes him useful for understanding how the two gods' long history actually looks from the outside.
Status evaluation
The art balances everyday Tokyo backdrops with sharp, stylish god and spirit designs, especially once the story moves into its supernatural settings.
The mix of episodic odd jobs and a longer arc about Yato's past as a god of calamity gives the story both easy entry points and real stakes.
Yato's broke-god routine and his bickering with Yukine keep the tone light even when the plot gets heavier.
Yukine's backstory and Yato's complicated history with Bishamon both land as genuinely sad once the story slows down to explain them.
Spirits and curses appear regularly, but the tone stays more adventurous than frightening.
Fights happen, but the violence is restrained rather than graphic.
The rules around gods, Regalia, and the spirit world take some explaining, though the core cast stays easy to follow.
This is an ongoing series. This figure has not been verified against a current source and should be treated as approximate.
“A broke god running an odd-jobs business out of a phone booth is a funnier premise than it has any right to be.”